Completely agree with this here. We are teetering, if not tumbling, towards utter infuriating mediocrity. It's so hard to get excited about guys like Cleary, Samuelsson, Bertuzzi, Colaiacovo et al. when they're just worn out band aids to keep the wheels ticking over. There's no point just topping up when we're going to be middle of the road anyway.

I can handle Smith's mistakes out there and his teething problems. I can't handle Quincey's. Why? Because Smith is a rookie with potential who is learning the ropes. He's got talent and he's worth pumping the time and the games into. Quincey just isn't. Replace Smith's name with Nyquist or Tatar and Quincey with Cleary or Samuelsson and it's the same point.

I'm sitting there watching Brunner fall down from the slightest touch and I'm giving him a free pass. Cleary does the same thing and I rage.

When I saw Nyquist get called up, it added a whole new element to watching the Dallas game - excitement. If we were throwing a team with a few rookies and veterans like Dats and Hank but we getting it handed to us, that's fine. But what about that game when it all clicks and we play some great hockey? An exciting brand of skilled hockey because our young, skilled guys have got it right?

I can go into every game of a 48 game season knowing the odds are that we'll lose because we've got a young team with potential and talent. I can get excited by the prospect that it will be this game that the team clicks. And if we lose, so be it. But we'd be making progress for the future and not pushing ourselves into stagnation.

Although, notice I did say a 48 game season..

Agreed. The thing I'm most excited about with the game against Minnesota is to see THEIR team, since I haven't seen them this year, and it's gonna be exciting to see what Granlund, and maybe an NHL-debuting Brodin can accomplish. Meanwhile we sent Nyquist down without properly giving him a chance.

I'm excited about Smith, but as much as he's a good prospect, in a "prospect team", he'd be quite average; that tells quite a bit about how I feel watching our dear Wings at the moment. I can't wait until Cleary, Samuelssons and Bert's contracts end. They all have moments where they shine and I rejoice, but those moments are every ten games or so.